A Tiny Home Made of Fabric

Tanya Shukstelinsky of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, Israel, came up with a totally novel idea for a micro home. Cocoon, as she called her creation is a thin, multi-story shelter, which is nestled between two layers of fabric. It is also extremely mobile as you can simply fold it up and move it at a whim. Cocoon came to exist as part of a project of creating a private space in a public area.

The Cocoon home can perhaps best be described as a living space located between two stitched layers of fabric. Movement within this space is possible on the stitches that hold it all together. Stiches are also used to separate the home into different areas, such as the bedroom, dining room, and even a bathroom.

Movement throughout the tiny home is made possible via handholds, which are sewn into the fabric “walls.” The tiny home also includes cozy nooks for seating, eating and bathing, which are also all supported by stitches. The sleeping area has a very tight fit, which is very cocoon-like, though it still offers all that is needed to get a good night’s rest.

Though this tiny house is perhaps more of a conceptual architecture and design project, Tanya did envision it as a way of creating affordable housing. This is perhaps more of a dream than a practical reality, though the idea could be used in large communal places that offer the occupants little privacy. Something like the Cocoon house could be deployed in disaster relief efforts in situations when vast numbers of people are being housed in a single large space, such as a warehouse. It could also offer some privacy to occupants of homeless shelters and half way houses.

This type of concept for a vertical and narrow tiny home dwelling could also easily be used in dense urban spaces with expensive real estate, especially since the Cocoon can easily be suspended in the spaces between buildings. However, since these homes offer little actual shelter, being made from fabric, that application is probably not likely to occur soon. Furthermore, since the fabric walls offer practically no insulation, the use of the Cocoon house anywhere but in hot climates is likely out of the question. Still, the Cocoon is a cool concept, which almost totally dematerializes the idea of shelter or a home into a completely portable dwelling with practically no footprint.